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The wife survived the attack in which gunmen killed the former adviser of Security. His voice was drowned to death. Organized crime and the police will rest from the constant criticism that made them the secretariat adviser of Security, José Alfredo Landaverde, foully murdered yesterday. The professional engineering had become an auditor of the actions of the institutions in charge of national security. Yesterday he went with his wife Hilda Caldera when he was attacked by two gunmen who were driving a motorcycle. The unfortunate occurrence which caused the Honduran population repudiation occurred at about ten o'clock on the Boulevard...

When Honduran leader Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo visits the White House today, it will be a watershed moment in the Central American country’s diplomatic rehabilitation. More than two years have passed since Honduran authorities removed Manuel Zelaya from the presidency to block his unconstitutional, autocratic power grab. Five months after Zelaya’s ouster, Honduras held a democratic national election, and Lobo, a member of the conservative National Party, won with over 56 percent of the vote. Yet it was not until this past June that Honduras was formally readmitted to the Organization of American States (OAS), which had suspended the country following...

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo next month at the White House to discuss a broad range of bilateral and regional economic and security issues, according to a press release. The Oval Office Meeting on October 5 will come only a few weeks after Lobo’s address at the United Nations, where he highlighted his country’s commitment to restoring human rights in the aftermath of the June 2009 coup that ousted then-President Manuel Zelaya. “The President also welcomes the opportunity to underscore the strong bonds of friendship between the American and Honduran people, as well as...

Distinguished Senior Fellow in Political Leadership and Constitutional Governance Laureate, the Samuel Adams-Jose Bonifacio Prize for 2010 Roberto Micheletti (b. 13 Aug. 1943) is a former President of Honduras (28 June 2009 – 27 January 2010). He succeeded to the Presidency as a result of the constitutional crisis arising from then President Manuel Zelaya's June 2009 attempt to illegally change the national Constitution. The Attorney General's office charged Manuel Zelaya with violations of the constitution, laws and court orders. The Honduran Supreme Court found that Zelaya was violating the Constitution and issued an arrest warrant ordering the Honduran military to...

In Billy Hoover's office today: U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens. My favorite Hugo Llorens quote: "One can't violate the Constitution in order to create another Constitution, because if one doesn't respect the Constitution, then we all live under the law of the jungle." Hugo Llorens, June 2009, in reference to President Manuel Zelaya's planned referendum on a proposed constitutional assembly. I guess we'll see if what Llorens thinks is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. Maybe he's there to give Billy Hoover a lesson on our Constitution. He could sure as hell use it.

During his speech, Micheletti Tuesday criticized the U.S. government and the OAS Hugo Llorens for reacting to the removal in 2009 of President Manuel Zelaya a "strong interest in ideological" The Honduran president Roberto Micheletti today asked the U.S. to defend democracy in Latin America and fight the presidents who want to stay in power, in a speech via video link to lawmakers in the country. "Please watch democracy in these countries where the presidents appear overnight and they want to stay in power. Help the people," Micheletti asked in his speech broadcast on a legislative subcommittee on Latin America....

The ousted ex-president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has arrived back in his home country, greeted by thousands of supporters after being run out of office almost two years ago. Zelaya's flight from Nicaragua landed at Tegucigalpa's airport Saturday afternoon where thousands of his supporters had been camping out. Zelaya, who spent much of his exile in the Dominican Republic, is scheduled to meet with Hondura's current President, Porfirio Lobo, and Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza. Zelaya was removed from office in June 2009 by the military for ignoring a Supreme Court order to cancel a referendum, which...

EGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former President Manuel Zelaya has arrived in Honduras, ending a long political crisis caused by his ouster in a military-backed coup almost two years ago. Zelaya's flight from Nicaragua landed on Saturday at Tegucigalpa's airport where he was greet by thousands of supporters who had set up a tent camp nearby. Zelaya's comeback paves the way for Honduras to re-enter the international community, which rejected the June 2009 coup that forced him from office and out of the country.

An agreement signed in Colombia this week allowing the ousted former Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, to return home and resume political activity without fear of prosecution marks “a great day” for the Honduran people, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But in the view of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the accord sets the stage for Zelaya and his leftist ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to further damage democracy in the small Central American country. “Hugo Chavez’s handprints are all over this deal,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “He can’t wait to have Zelaya...

Ousted ex-Honduran President Manuel Zelaya inked an accord Sunday with the country's current president that will allow him to return to Honduras after almost two years in exile, officials said. The deal, which was brokered by the Colombian and Venezuelan governments, was signed in Cartagena, Colombia, by Zelaya and Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. It allows Zelaya and his allies to return to Honduras and helps clear the way for the country to rejoin the Organization of American States. Zelaya and his supporters will also be permitted to participate in Honduran politics. Zelaya was overthrown in a military-led coup June 28,...

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza. Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group's 'sudden' appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011. Code...

This week saw a showdown between the man whose most significant achievement before 2008 was that he very nearly got the asbestos removed from the Altgeld Gardens tenements in Chicago and the third-longest-ruling head of Egypt since the Pharaoh Ramses, whose reign lasted 67 years. The Egyptian, an 82-year-old with terminal cancer, easily bested the community organizer, the man elected by people who quite clearly confused the last presidential election with an American idol contest. While many who elected the American president probably do not yet realize it, it is lucky for them that he lost the showdown, for had...

Unbelievable. The Obama Administration knew that Manuel Zelaya was an anti-democratic anti-Semitic pig whose goal was to become ruler for life like his buddy Hugo Chavez. But, Team Obama decided to support him for the greater good of Latin American relations. Barack Obama even cut off aid to Honduras in order to appease tyrant Hugo Chavez.

"The last year and a half of the [President Manuel] Zelaya Administration will be, in my view, extraordinarily difficult for our bilateral relationship. His pursuit of immunity from the numerous activities of organized crime carried out in his administration will cause him to threaten the rule of law and institutional stability." —Charles Ford, U.S. ambassador to Honduras, May 15, 2008 Lots of hypotheses have been floated to explain why the Obama administration went to such extremes last year to try to force Honduras to reinstate deposed president Manuel Zelaya. Now the release of two WikiLeaked cables from the U.S. embassy...

OAS Commission recommends eliminating lawsuits against Zelaya The report on the situation in Honduras was delivered to the Permanent Council yesterday by the OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. The High Level Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) in its report on the situation of Honduras, the government of Porfirio Lobo Sosa remove legal proceedings instituted against former President Manuel Zelaya. "The Commission considers it appropriate to end lawsuits over the de facto regime against former President Zelaya and his associates, under the laws of Honduras," said the document prepared by the OAS Permanent Representatives of Argentina, Bahamas,...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya accused the United States of being behind the 2009 coup that ousted him, in a letter released Monday on the first anniversary of his ouster. Zelaya, who now lives in the Dominican Republic, has given conflicting accounts on what role the United States allegedly played in the coup, in which Honduran soldiers hustled him out of the country on June 28, 2009.<> He has alternately praised the policy of the U.S. government on the issue, and criticized Washington for not pressing harder for his reinstatement. But Monday's letter said flatly: "What we...

The image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wielding what resembled an oversized mallet while leading a mob of congressmen across Capitol Hill on the day of the health-care vote is the stuff of nightmares. It is also instructive. As a metaphor for how the Democrats view their power, the Pelosi hammer-pose could not be more perfect. Just ask Honduras. Last year, the U.S. tried to force the reinstatement of deposed president Manuel Zelaya. When that failed and Team Obama was looking like the Keystone Cops, it sent a delegation to Tegucigalpa to negotiate a compromise. Participants in those talks say...

Honduras' anti-corruption prosecutor is pressing for more charges against former President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown in a coup last year. Leonardo Orellana told reporters Wednesday he has asked a criminal court to charge Zelaya for allegedly diverting $1.5 million in government welfare funds to his campaign for a referendum on reforming the constitution. Soldiers escorted the left-leaning president out of Honduras at gunpoint after he defied a Supreme Court order to drop plans for the vote. Critics say he was trying to extend his rule by lifting a ban on presidential re-election, as his ally Hugo Chavez has done...

One can easily understand and even empathize with Manuel Zelaya for being angry, resentful, and vengeful toward interim president Roberto Micheletti, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the Supreme Court, the Congress, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez, and business leaders in Honduras, given that they all either played a role in his overthrow or failed to support his efforts to return to power. It's much harder to make a good case, however, for why Mr. Zelaya would have overly hard feelings toward President-elect Porfirio Lobo. After all, it was Mr. Lobo who signed the agreement with Dominican President Leonel Fernández to grant safe passage...

MEXICO CITY — The deposed former Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, packed his guitar and flew into exile Wednesday as the country inaugurated a new president, who promised to try to repair the rifts left by months of political turmoil. After a good-bye lunch with his mother, Mr. Zelaya, his wife and his daughter left their refuge in the Brazilian Embassy and headed for the airport. They were accompanied by the new president, Porfirio Lobo, along with President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, who last week invited Mr. Zelaya to the Dominican capital. The usually voluble Mr. Zelaya said little...

Roberto Micheletti, interrim President of Honduras, steps down today to allow for the peaceful transition of power to the newly elected president of the tiny nation, Porfirio Lobo Sosa. You may recall that Micheletti was appointed after former President Zelaya attempted to overturn the country’s election process (with the assistance of President Obama’s favorite thug, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela) and was promptly, unceremoniously, and constitutionally removed from office... And where is the United States while all this is happening in a tiny democracy well within our sphere of influence? Why isn’t Joe Biden one of the dignitaries congratulating Micheletti for...

A Supreme Court judge cleared Honduras' military commanders Tuesday in the coup that toppled Manuel Zelaya, and hours later lawmakers approved amnesty for the ousted leader and all those involved in his removal. The two measures — combined with Wednesday's inauguration of a new president, conservative rancher Porfirio Lobo — appeared to spell the last chapter in the bitter political dispute that led to Honduras' international isolation. Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera ruled the country's top generals did not abuse their power in ordering soldiers to escort Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint June 28. "Prosecutors failed to prove...

Permanent dismissal for honduran military commanders board. "Justice has been done," were the first reactions of the armed forces spokesman, Colonel Ramiro Archaga. 26.01.10 - Updated: 26.01.10 12:12 pm - Writing: redaccion@elheraldo.hn Current Rating: Votes: 0 0 comment Print Send Tegucigalpa, Honduras . The Supreme Court (CSJ), delivered today a definitive dismissal in favor of the junta of commanders of the Armed Forces of Honduras. They are Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, head of the Joint Chiefs; Cervantes Venancio, deputy chief, Javier Prince, commander of the Air Force, Miguel Angel Padgeth, commander of the Army and Juan Pablo Rodriguez, commander of the...

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya confirmed he will leave Honduras and travel to the Dominican Republic next week when a new president is sworn into office. Zelaya told Radio Globo on Saturday he will leave Honduras as a private citizen, thanks to an accord signed by President-elect Porfirio Lobo and Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. "On the 27th of January, I will leave as a common citizen... after having completed my presidential mandate," Zelaya said. Zelaya was ousted in a June 2009 coup during his effort to change the constitution that the Supreme Court had ruled illegal. He still faces treason and...

Honduran industrials honor Micheletti Adolfo Faccusé recalled the hard times he lived in the U.S. when the visa was revoked to defend democracy in Honduras Tegucigalpa, Honduras . The National Association of Industrialists (ANDI) in a special event today conducted a private ceremony to honor the President, Roberto Michelleti. In the house of Andi president, Adolfo Facussé, attended by the president and his wife Michelleti Siomara, and the junta of commanders of the Armed Forces, led by General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez. 
 
 The president said Michelletti Andi is a patriot and the first hero of Honduras in the XXI...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' coup-installed government says ousted leader Manuel Zelaya is free to leave the country, but there's a catch: Zelaya can't go as president, and he says he won't go as anything else. And so he remained holed up Thursday in the Brazilian Embassy, where he has been staying since he slipped back into the country three months ago. If he sets foot outside the building, the leaders who ousted him have vowed to arrest him on charges of treason and abuse of power. They appeared to be softening their stance on Wednesday when they initially responded positively...

Honduras' interim government says it has authorized ousted President Manuel Zelaya to leave the country and go to Mexico. Foreign Ministry spokesman Milton Mateo says the safe-conduct pass was signed and would be delivered to the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya has been holed up since sneaking back into the country Sept. 21. Mateo said Wednesday night that the Mexican government has sent an airplane to pick up Zelaya and his family. Another official of the interim government's Foreign Ministry said Mexico requested that Zelaya be given safe conduct to leave. A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says...

Gunmen in Honduras have shot dead the head of the country's anti-drug trafficking operations.Police said retired Gen Julian Aristides Gonzalez was travelling in a car in the capital, Tegucigalpa, when attackers on a motorcycle opened fire. Honduras is a major route for drugs smuggled from South to North America. The nation, mired in political crisis since President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in June, also has one of the highest murder rates in the region. Gen Aristides, director general of the national office for combating drug trafficking, was travelling by car through Tegucigalpa when two attackers on a motorcycle opened fire,...

Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald wrote an intriguing piece recently on the splash effect of the coup, or crisis, or whatever term least offends someone of Honduras’ new leadership and recent election, and how the major powers in Latin America have tried unsuccessfully to remedy the situation. Oppenheimer argues that the US, Brazil and the OAS have all succeeded in failure in their own unique ways. Failure for the three comes as follows. For Brazil, its “hypocrisy” of recognizing Iran’s and Cuba’s undemocratic leadership, while criticizing Honduras’ recent elections. For the US, the “flip-flopping” that comes with a constant...

Honduras' deposed President Manuel Zelaya said on Sunday that he would stay in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital for as long as Brasilia allowed him to and that he would be willing to talk to the new president-elect. Leftist Zelaya, who was ousted by the army in a coup on June 28, slipped back into Honduras in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he has been demanding his reinstatement. The United States and Brazil have been pushing for Zelaya's return to power but his fate remains uncertain after the Honduran Congress voted...

TEGUCIGALPA – The National Resistance Front that arose after the June 28 ouster of President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras has abandoned hope for the restoration of ousted the former president and is focused now on convening an assembly to overhaul the country’s constitution, one of the group’s leaders said Thursday. “We have closed this chapter on the restoration of President Zelaya, which didn’t take place,” Juan Barahona told Efe the day after Honduran lawmakers rejected reinstatement of the deposed head of state. The Honduran Congress decisively rejected the restitution of deposed President Mel Zelaya in a vote of 62 to...

Looks like ousted Honduras President Zelaya will be holed up in the Brazilian embassy for a while longer. The Congress of Honduras voted not to reinstate the deposed dictator-wannabe. Honduras has been the object of Obama's attacks ever since they threw Zeyala out of office. The former President's disposal was ordered by the Honduras Supreme Court and was in line with the Honduras Constitution. Following the direction of his buddy Chavez, Zeyala illegally attempted to stay in power despite the constitutional ban on running for another term. The military removed him from office, and immediately returned power to the civilian...

final score: 111 against Z 15 for Z.

TEGUCIGALPA — A majority in the Honduran Congress have voted against reinstating deposed President Manuel Zelaya and allowing him to finish out his term of office. A simple majority of 65 lawmakers in the 128-member body voted against Zelaya's return to the presidency shortly before 730 pm (0130 GMT) on Wednesday after more than six hours of debate.

10 in favor of Z 80 against Z.

Update: 4:40: Vote is still taking place. Has stalled with a long pro-Zelaya speech by ???. She claims there was 60+ abstentionism on Sunday and is basically repeating the same things we've heard Zelaya say a thousand times. She is quoting several sections of the constitution. Says that Zelaya never submitted a change of the constitution, the court was wrong, .

In a few minutes the honduran congress will vote to decide if Manuel Zelaya, president fired by the honduran constitution for attempting a repeal of the current constitution, will be or not be reinstated. The honduran institutions such as the human rights commissioner, Attorney general, Procurator general, Supreme Electoral Tribunal and Supreme Court, have opposed any reinstatement, saying that is inappropiate. The attorney general has threatened to prosecute any that supports the reinstatetment of Zelaya.

Nationalists (conservatives) won 252 mayors and 46 liberals The Liberal Party won only one municipality in La Paz while 16 controlled National Party. Were pending two. PN (conservatives) plans to win more than 70 deputies. National Party leaders argue that 12 or 13 deputies are of this political entity. Six or seven of the Liberal and 3 or 4 other games. According to preliminary projections of political parties, the National Party will bring as many members, perhaps the greatest of all electoral processes. Between 70 and 73 MPs are believed to belong to the National Party, enough to dispense with...

A wealthy rancher was due to be declared Honduras's new president today after a tumultuous election dogged by the overthrow of his predecessor. Preliminary results gave Porfirio Lobo 56% of votes, prompting cavalcades of cheering, honking supporters in the streets of the capital, Tegucigalpa. His nearest rival, Elvin Santos of the ruling Liberal party, conceded defeat. Lobo, from the centre-right National party, promised to unify a country polarised by the military-led coup against Manuel Zelaya in June, a political shock which rattled Latin America and left Honduras isolated and stripped of aid and investment.... The Supreme Electoral Tribunal said 61%...

The State Department recognized Porfirio Lobo's victory in Sunday's election but said the Honduran Congress still needed to vote on the restoration of deposed President Manuel Zelaya and form a government of national unity. "While the election is a significant step in Honduras' return to the democratic and constitutional order ... it's only a step and it's not the last step," said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela. Before the election, the United States tried and failed to have Zelaya reinstated. Its support of the election upset many Latin American nations, including powerful Brazil, which called...

One of the big losers from yesterday’s successful election in Honduras has been Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who demonstrated that under his presidency, Brazil is not ready to play a positive leadership role in the hemisphere. Not only did Lula seem to be complicit in smuggling deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya into the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa—an irresponsible move that risked the possibility of major confrontations and bloodshed in that country—but he stubbornly refuses to recognize yesterday’s election as legitimate. Lula’s grandstanding has nothing to do with a supposed commitment to democracy, of course. After all he...

Honduras' disputed presidential election is likely to set Washington against emerging Latin American power Brazil over whether to recognize the winner of a vote promoted by the leaders of a June coup. Conservative opposition leader Porfirio Lobo easily won the election on Sunday, but he will struggle to get recognition in Latin America where many leftist governments see the election as a nail in the coffin of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The United States has tried and failed to have Zelaya, a leftist, reinstated and now looks resigned to backing the election as the best way for Honduras' to get...

Unless something monumental happens in the Western Hemisphere in the next 31 days, the big regional story for 2009 will be how tiny Honduras managed to beat back the colonial aspirations of its most powerful neighbors and preserve its constitution.

The results from today's elections in Honduras are beginning to roll in and it looks as if Porfirio Lobo,from Honduran opposition National Party, is leading in the election at least according to the local media. According to preliminary data, the 61-year-old opposition leader received around 56% of the vote. His main rival, 46-year-old businessman Elvin Santos representing the ruling Liberal Party, came second in the presidential race, with about 38% of the vote. Even if the trend continues the Liberal party will not be the big loser today, Hugo Chavez, whose imperialist goals were thwarted when President Zelaya was ousted...

Honduran opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo is leading in a presidential election that could ease a five-month crisis following the June coup against President Manuel Zelaya, media exit polls said on Sunday. Lobo, a conservative, won more than 55 percent of Sunday's vote and was well ahead of ruling Liberal Party candidate Elvin Santos, the HRN radio station said. A TV channel gave Lobo 51 percent. Lobo was seen as more likely than Santos to persuade foreign governments to recognize Sunday's election.

Election day in Honduras! The day has arrived! Voting centers open in about 1h 30 min local time. The people are ready to say NO to King Hugo I and Z and to show the world that this little dwarf can give and example of the rule of law. Stay tuned for more live info throughout the day

The United States finds itself pretty much alone in supporting elections to be held this Sunday in embattled Honduras. It's enough to make you wonder whether, following the unilateral misadventures under George W. Bush, we might once again be on the wrong side of history. With the exception of Panama, almost everyone else in the world maintains that the elections are illegitimate as long as the country's last elected president, Manuel Zelaya, remains deposed... I firmly believe in multilateralism and compromise...But this is one of those times when you have to stand on principle. My bet is that the world...

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras' Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that ousted President Manuel Zelaya cannot legally return to office, dimming the possibility of his reinstatement after a June coup, court sources said. The Court did not release the full text of its non-binding ruling, but a court source and a lawyer close to the proceedings said it closely follows earlier decisions upholding Zelaya's ouster after he moved to change the constitution.